A HUGE police manhunt has been launched for a convicted paedophile with a “fanatical obsession” for young girls after he vanished from a psychiatric unit.

Stephen Munden, 54, has been missing since 6.15pm on Tuesday evening and was last seen leaving a hospital near Hook, Hampshire.

Officers believe the man, who suffers from learning difficulties, may have shaved off his full beard before leaving the hospital.

He was sentenced last August for child sex offences after he targeted a toddler on a bus.

Munden was convicted of sexually touching a child under the age of 13, when he deliberately sat near the three-year-old girl and stroked her hand with his finger - in full view of the girl's mother and grandmother.

Police were finally alerted to the offender when he attempted to download images from one of the public computers at Hythe library.

They then searched his house and found children's clothes, books and dolls, according to prosecutor David Jenkins.